Russia Resuming Caviar Exports After 9 Years

A fisheries watchdog said on Monday that Russia has resumed sturgeon caviar exports to the European Union (EU) after a nine-year ban.

Alexander Savelyev, a spokesman for the Federal Fisheries Agency, said that Russia has decided to allow exports to Europe of up to 330 pounds of black caviar from farmed fish as “a symbolic volume.”

“The goal is to break the ice which has formed over the past nine years when not a single permit was issued for exports of the black caviar from Russia,” Savelyev told AFP.

Russia banned exports of black caviar in 2002 after fears of extinction of sturgeon prized for its caviar eggs. However, the move encouraged poaching as well as illegal exports to Europe through Turkey and the Caucasus.